Getting Her Strength Back

Veronica Goff’s pain started five years ago as general neck pain. Being a nurse for close to fifteen years, she thought to herself, “This is normal. Nurses have neck pain.”

Over the years, the pain would get worse. The pain was starting to go down her left arm, and within the last year, it had become noticeably worse. She was having sharp pains through her shoulder and into her hand and lost feeling in two of her fingers.

From this pain, Veronica was also experiencing a lot of weakness. Working in the GI lab at Boone Hospital Center, Veronica’s weakness was causing her to need assistance with many of her daily activities. The activities that she continued to do herself would cause her increased pain. “I had to have help doing things that I should have been more independent in,” Veronica says.

Her sleep was even affected because of the amount of pain she was in. She tried a steroid injection that helped temporarily, and she also tried physical therapy, but couldn’t get any relief from that.

Veronica was inspired to schedule an appointment after reading “Relief From Pain,” an article in the Winter 2024 My Boone Health where another satisfied patient shared their experience at MidMo Neurosurgery and getting back their quality of life.

“Reading that article was part of why I decided to have the surgery,” Veronica explains. “I was really nervous and really scared, but I’m reading this article thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s me! And she’s really happy with it!’ I can do this.”

The other reason why Veronica wanted to see if the surgery was right for her was because of the weakness she was experiencing at work and at home. It was the weakness that finally got her to say to herself, “Okay, you have to do something.”

Veronica had an MRI of her neck done that showed a disc which was bulging and placing pressure on a nerve that went to her left arm. The pressure on this nerve was causing her pain and was also causing the weakness in her left arm.

After meeting with Charles Bondurant, MD, Veronica decided it was worth it to try and have this operation to see if it would provide her any relief from her pain.

On the day of her surgery, Veronica was not scared at all. The staff assured her that they do this all the time and that Veronica was in good hands. She says, “Everybody was so wonderful and calmed me down if I seemed nervous.”

Dr. Bondurant performed a laminotomy/foraminotomy. This procedure removes a part of the spinal bone to allow room to take pressure off the compressed nerve. In Veronica’s case, that was discs C6-C7.

After surgery, Veronica was moved up to Boone Hospital’s Progressive Care Unit for recovery. “The nurse I had up there was awesome,” Veronica says. “It was just neat to be the patient and to see that it really is what everyone describes. When you hear ‘Boone’s awesome.

Boone takes care of you,’ they really do. Nobody knew I worked at Boone and I wasn’t treated any differently.” Veronica had the option to stay overnight for pain control, but she felt so good afterward, that she was discharged and able to go home the same evening.

“I have a pretty large tattoo on my back,” Veronica said. “When Dr. Bondurant came to discharge me, he said, I didn’t even get your incision in your tattoo!” Veronica says, “That was not my concern whatsoever. I just wanted the surgery, so the fact that he took the time to make this little bitty scar cosmetically appealing was kind of cool.”

Within one week after her surgery, Veronica had complete relief from the sharp pains and had all the feeling and sensation return to her arm, hand, and fingers. Within two weeks, she was able to do most of her normal activities with her weight restriction of 10 pounds. Today, she has no pain and is working to rebuild her muscle and strength. She is also able to sleep through the night and is no longer taking Ibuprofen around the clock.

Veronica’s boyfriend Justin played a huge role in her recovery. While she was resting, he took on the household chores and took care of their pets, a 3-year-old boxer Hemi and their cat Meatloaf. In her free time, Veronica likes to walk, play the guitar, garden or do anything outdoors.

Thinking of someone who may be hesitant to have surgery, Veronica hopes they read this article and tell themselves, “I can do this too!”

By Erin Wegner